FILM STUDIES (BRYN MAWR)

Transcription

1 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) 1 FILM STUDIES (BRYN MAWR) Department Website: Film Studies is an interdisciplinary program of inquiry bringing a range of analytical methods to bear upon films, film audiences, and the social and industrial contexts of film and media production, distribution and exhibition. The courses that comprise the minor in film studies reflect the diversity of approaches in the academic study of cinema. The minor is anchored by core courses in formal analysis, history and theory. Elective courses in particular film styles, directors, national cinemas, genres, areas of theory and criticism, video production, and issues in film and media culture add both breadth and depth to this program of study. Film Studies is a Bryn Mawr College minor. Students must take a majority of courses on the Bryn Mawr campus; however, minors are encouraged to consider courses offered in the Tri-College consortium and at the University of Pennsylvania. Students should work with the director of the Film Studies Program to develop a minor work plan when declaring the minor. Minor Requirements In consultation with the program director, students design a program of study that includes a range of film genres, styles, national cinemas, eras and disciplinary and methodological approaches. Students are strongly encouraged to take at least one course addressing topics in global or nonwestern cinema. The minor consists of a total of six courses and must include the following: One introductory course in the formal analysis of film One course in film history or an area of film history One course in film theory or an area of film theory Three electives. At least one of the six courses must be at the 300 level. Courses that fall into two or more of the above categories may fulfill the requirement of the student s choosing, but may not fulfill more than one requirement simultaneously. Students should consult with their advisors to determine which courses, if any, may count simultaneously for multiple credentials. Final approval is at the discretion of the program director. Steering Committee A steering committee administers the Film Studies program at Bryn Mawr. Many other faculty contribute courses to the program; see the Courses section for a representative listing. Chair and Associate Professor of Russian on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship in Russian Chair and Professor of History of Art and the Eugenia Chase Guild Chair in the Humanities Michael Tratner Mary E. Garrett Alumnae Professor of English Sharon Ullman Professor of History Courses Classical Studies Courses CSTS B274 GREEK TRAGEDY IN GLOBAL CINEMA (1.0 Annette Baertschi This course explores how contemporary film, a creative medium appealing to the entire demographic spectrum like Greek drama, looks back to the ancient origins. Examining both films that are directly based on Greek plays and films that make use of classical material without being explicitly classical in plot or setting, we will discuss how Greek mythology is reconstructed and appropriated for modern audiences and how the classical past continues to be culturally significant. A variety of methodological approaches such as film and gender theory, psychoanalysis, and feminist theory will be applied in addition to more straightforward literaryhistorical interpretation. East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses EALC B212 TOPICS: INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE LITERATURE (1.0 Shiamin Kwa This is a topics course. Topics may vary. Year) EALC B240 TOPICS IN CHINESE FILM (1.0 Shiamin Kwa

2 2 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) EALC B315 SPIRITS, SAINTS, SNAKES, SWORDS: WOMEN IN EAST ASIAN LITERATURE & FILM (1.0 Shiamin Kwa This interdisciplinary course focuses on a critical survey of literary and visual texts by and about Chinese women. We will begin by focusing on the cultural norms that defined women's lives beginning in early China, and consider how those tropes are reflected and rejected over time and geographical borders (in Japan, Hong Kong and the United States). No prior knowledge of Chinese culture or language necessary. (Offered: Spring 2019; typically offered: English Courses ENGL B205 INTRODUCTION TO FILM (1.0 Sara Bryant This course is intended to provide students with the tools of critical film analysis. Through readings of images and sounds, sections of films and entire narratives, students will cultivate the habits of critical viewing and establish a foundation for focused work in film studies. The course introduces formal and technical units of cinematic meaning and categories of genre and history that add up to the experiences and meanings we call cinema. Although much of the course material will focus on the Hollywood style of film, examples will be drawn from the history of cinema. Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory. (Offered: Fall 2018; typically offered: Every ENGL B229 MOVIES AND MASS POLITICS (1.0 Movies and mass politics emerged together, altering entertainment and government in strangely similar ways. Fascism and Communism claimed an inherent relation to the masses and hence to movies; Hollywood rejected such claims. We will examine films that allude to Communism and Fascism, seeking to understand how they join in political debates and comment upon the mass experience of movie going. ENGL B231 THEORIZING AFFECT, WATCHING TELEVISION (1.0 Sara Bryant This course examines television through the lens of affect theory. Within humanities scholarship, the turn toward affect has offered new ways to study the cultural, economic, and political functions of literature and art. In our wider cultural moment, television programming has become a source of shared fascination. The course will pair readings from affect studies (by scholars such as Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai) with select examples of television shows (including Black Mirror, Mad Men, and The Wire). We will also read scholarly and public writing about television and consider the interplay between cultural feelings and televisual forms such as seriality, situation comedy, and bottle episodes. (Offered: Spring 2019; typically offered: ENGL B324 TOPICS IN SHAKESPEARE: (1.0 Colby Gordon Films and play texts vary from year to year. The course assumes significant prior experience of Shakespearean drama and/or Renaissance drama. ENGL B336 TOPICS IN FILM (1.0 Sara Bryant This is a topics course and description varies according to the topic. Year) French and French Studies Courses FREN B208 VISIBLE MINORITIES: DIVERSITY IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH CINEMA (1.0 Julien Suaudeau Until the closing years of the 20th century, ethnic diversity was virtually absent from French cinema. While Francophone directors from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa debunked colonialism and neocolonialism in their films, minorities hardly appeared on French screens. Movies were made by white filmmakers for a white audience. Since the 1980's and the 1990's, minorities have become more visible in French films. Are French Blacks and Arabs portrayed in French cinema beyond stereotypes, or are they still objects of a euro-centric gaze? Have minorities gained agency in storytelling, not just as actors, but as directors? What is the national narrative at play in the recent French films that focus on diversity? Is it still "us against them", or has the new generation of French filmmakers found a way to include the different components of French identity into a collective subject? From Bouchareb to Gomis, from Kechiche to Benyamina and Jean-Baptiste, this course will map out the visual fault lines of the French self and examine the prospects for a postrepublican sense of community. Open to non-majors.

3 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) 3 There will be a weekly screening and a 4th hour taught in French. FREN B312 ADVANCED TOPICS IN LITERATURE (1.0 Brigitte Mahuzier Prerequisites: two 200-level courses. (Offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2019) Geology Courses GEOL B125 FOCUS: GEOLOGY IN FILM (0.5 Pedro Marenco Division: Natural Science This is a half semester Focus course. Geologic processes make for great film storylines, but filmmakers take great liberty with how they depict scientific facts and scientists. We will explore how and why filmmakers choose to deviate from science reality. We will study and view one film per week and discuss its issues from a geologist s perspective. German Courses GERM B262 TOPICS: FILM AND THE GERMAN LITERARY IMAGINATION (1.0 Michael Burri other Fall) General Studies Courses GNST B255 VIDEO PRODUCTION (1.0 David Romberg This course will explore aesthetic strategies utilized by low-budget film and video makers as each student works throughout the semester to complete a 7-15 minute film or video project. Course requirements include weekly screenings, reading assignments, and class screenings of rushes and roughcuts of student projects. Prerequisites: Some prior film course experience necessary, instructor discretion. (Offered: Fall 2018; typically offered: Every Fall) GNST B302 TOPICS IN VIDEO PRODUCTION (1.0 David Romberg History of Art Courses HART B110 CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VISUAL REPRESENTATION: IDENTIFICATION IN THE CINEMA (1.0 An introduction to the analysis of film through particular attention to the role of the spectator. Why do moving images compel our fascination? How exactly do film spectators relate to the people, objects, and places that appear on the screen? Wherein lies the power of images to move, attract, repel, persuade, or transform its viewers? In this course, students will be introduced to film theory through the rich and complex topic of identification. We will explore how points of view are framed in cinema, and how those viewing positions differ from those of still photography, advertising, video games, and other forms of media. Students will be encouraged to consider the role the cinematic medium plays in influencing our experience of a film: how it is not simply a film s content, but the very form of representation that creates interactions between the spectator and the images on the screen. Film screenings include Psycho, Being John Malkovich, and others. Course is geared to freshman and those with no prior film instruction. Fulfills History of Art major 100-level course requirement, Film Studies minor Introductory course or Theory course requirement. (Offered: Fall 2018; typically offered: Every HART B299 HISTORY OF NARRATIVE CINEMA, 1945 TO THE PRESENT (1.0 This course surveys the history of narrative film from 1945 through contemporary cinema. We will analyze a chronological series of styles and national cinemas, including Classical Hollywood, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and other post-war movements and genres. Viewings of canonical films will be supplemented by more recent examples of global cinema. While historical in approach, this course emphasizes the theory and criticism of the sound film, and we will consider various methodological approaches to the aesthetic, socio-political, and psychological dimensions of cinema. Readings will provide historical context, and will introduce students to key concepts in film studies such as realism, formalism, spectatorship, the auteur theory, and genre studies. Fulfills the history requirement

4 4 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) or the introductory course requirement for the Film Studies minor. (Typically offered: Every Fall) HART B306 FILM THEORY (1.0 An introduction to major developments in film theory and criticism. Topics covered include: the specificity of film form; cinematic realism; the cinematic author ; the politics and ideology of cinema; the relation between cinema and language; spectatorship, identification, and subjectivity; archival and historical problems in film studies; the relation between film studies and other disciplines of aesthetic and social criticism. Each week of the syllabus pairs critical writing(s) on a central principle of film analysis with a cinematic example. Class will be divided between discussion of critical texts and attempts to apply them to a primary cinematic text. Prerequisite: A course in Film Studies (HART B110, HART B299, ENGL B205, or the equivalent from another college by permission of instructor). (Typically offered: Every Fall) HART B334 TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES (1.0 (Typically offered: Every Fall) HART B420 PRAXIS FIELDWORK SEMINAR (1.0 Jennifer Spohrer In this Praxis course, students will learn to critically evaluate augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications by developing their own AR/VR museum installation. The classroom component will include readings, guest lectures, and discussion topics in public history, conceptual art, and museum studies, and critical exploration of AR/VR and locationbased technologies currently used in these fields. The majority of this course consists of a fieldwork component, in which students will develop an augmented- or virtual-reality installation of their own. Students will learn project management, design thinking, Unity development, and other digital competencies needed to successfully develop their museum installation. Prior experience with programming and/or Unity is advantageous but not required. If you are unsure about whether this course would work for you, please contact us or attend an info session. Pre-registered students should attend an info session on November 27 at 4PM in Canaday 315 to complete their Praxis learning plan. (Typically offered: Every other Year) History Courses HIST B284 MOVIES AND AMERICA: THE PAST LIVES FOREVER (1.0 Sharon Ullman Division: Social Science Movies are one of the most important means by which Americans come to know or think they know their own history. We look to old movies to tell us about a world we never knew but think we can access through film. And Hollywood often reaches into the past to tell a good story. How can we understand the impact of our love affair with movies on our understanding of what happened in this country? In this course we will examine the complex cultural relationship between film and American historical self-fashioning. (Offered: Spring 2019; typically offered: Italian and Italian Studies Courses ITAL B212 ITALY TODAY: MIGRATION STUDIES (1.0 There are numerous economic, political, and cultural elements that encumber on the existential condition of the migrant. In political and ideological parlance the term migrant has come to mean poor, needy, precarious, unhappy, primitive, and even criminal. In Italy, furthermore, the colonial past has been foreclosed, leading to a strengthening of stereotypes that continue to populate the discourse on migration. In this course we will examine issues related to migration, such as colonialism. racism, gender relations, discrimination, identity and difference and how they re-present new forms of multicultural and contaminated life and their impact on geography, security, identity, and belonging.. Is multiculturalism the answer to all the problems? Does it resolve the problem of closed communities so eloquently discussed by Bauman? With the help of Italian cinema of migration and selected critical articles we will discuss different positions and follow the migrants as they cross desert and sea to reach the European metropolis. From Libya to Lampedusa, from the Balkans to Puglia, and from there to the Roman peripheries, to the center of the city. ITAL B213 THEORY IN PRACTICE:CRITICAL DISCOURSES IN THE HUMANITIES (1.0 Alessandro Giammei What is a postcolonial subject, a queer gaze, a feminist manifesto? And how can we use (as readers of texts, art, and films) contemporary studies on animals and cyborgs, object oriented ontology, zombies, storyworlds, neuroaesthetics? In this course

5 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) 5 we will read some pivotal theoretical texts from different fields, with a focus on race&ethnicity and gender&sexuality. Each theory will be paired with a masterpiece from Italian culture (from Renaissance treatises and paintings to stories written under fascism and postwar movies). We will discuss how to apply theory to the practice of interpretation and of academic writing, and how theoretical ideas shaped what we are reading. Class conducted in English, with an additional hour in Italian for students seeking Italian credit. (Offered: Fall 2018) ITAL B214 THE MYTH OF VENICE ( ) (1.0 In English. The Republic of Venice existed for over a millennium. This course begins in the year 1797 at the end of the Republic and the emerging of an extensive body of literature centered on Venice and its mythical facets. Readings will include the Romantic views of Venice (excerpts from Lord Byron, Fredrick Schiller, Wolfang von Goethe, Ugo Foscolo, Alessandro Manzoni) and the 20th century reshaping of the literary myth (readings from Thomas Mann, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Gabriele D Annunzio, Henry James, and others). A journey into this fascinating tradition will shed light on how the literary and visual representation of Venice, rather than focusing on a nostalgic evocation of the death of the Republic, became a territory of exploration for literary modernity. The course is offered in English; all texts are provided in translation. One additional hour for students who want Italian credit. Suggested Preparation: Counts toward Comp Lit. Counts toward Film Studies. ITAL B229 THE POLITICS OF FOOD IN ITALIAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND CINEMA (1.0 In English. A profile of Italian literature/culture/ cinema obtained through an analysis of gastronomic documents, films, literary texts, and magazines. We will also include a discussion of the Slow Food Revolution, a movement initiated in Italy in 1980 and now with a world-wide following, and its social, economic, ecological, aesthetic, and cultural impact to counteract fast food and to promote local food traditions. Course taught in English. One additional hour for students who want Italian credit. other Fall) ITAL B255 UOMINI D ONORE IN SICILIA: ITALIAN MAFIA IN LITERATURE AND CINEMA (1.0 Roberta Ricci This course aims to explore representations of Mafia figures in Italian literature and cinema, starting from the 'classical' example of Sicily. From Sicily, the octopus (piovra), as the Mafia is called in Italy, has spread throughout Italy, and has pervaded almost every facet of Italian life, including cultural life. The course will introduce students to both Italian Studies from an interdisciplinary prospective and also to narrative, using fiction and non-fiction texts written by 19th, 20th, and 21st century writers. Novels, films, testimonies and TV series will offer different representations of the Mafia: its ethics, its relation with politics, religion and business, its ideas of friendship, family, masculinity and femininity. Internships in Italy will be available connected with this course. Course is taught in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL B102 or permission of the instructor. (Typically offered: Every Three Years) ITAL B306 YOUTH IN 20TH CENTURY ITALIAN LITERATURE AND CINEMA (1.0 Roberta Ricci This interdisciplinary course focuses on literary texts and visual material dealing with youth and youth culture in post-fascist Italy. How is youth described in Italian culture after WWII? What does youth represent in the Italian imagination of 20th century Italy? Which language is used by the youth? While the focus in analyzing the challenges faced by youth is primarily on literature and film studies, throughout the semester the course will also touch upon sociological, cultural, and anthropological perspectives concerning the role of the family, peer relationships, prostitution, drugs, criminality and violence, diversity, gender identity, and sexuality. Students will be required to attend film screenings or view films on their own devices. Prerequisite: One literature course at the 200 level. or permission by the instructor. (Typically offered: Every other ITAL B307 INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS: OTHERNESS IN ITALIAN LITERATURE (1.0 Roberta Ricci This course will introduce students to the most representative works in Italian literature of all genres --poetry, novels, scientific prose, theater, diaries, narrative, epistolary throughout the centuries, with emphasis on marginalization, exile, political persecution, national identity, violence, and otherness. We will bring works of literature to the attention of students who are interested in the key role played by Italian culture in the development of a European civilization, including the international debate on modernity and postmodernity. Readings and lectures will move

6 6 Film Studies (Bryn Mawr) from 14th century writers (Dante, Boccaccio) to Humanistic Thought (Florentine political revolution) and the Renaissance (Machiavelli); from the Enlightenment (Foscolo, Leopardi, Manzoni) to modernity (Pirandello, Svevo) and post-modernism (Calvino). Prerequisite: One literature course at the 200 level. or permission by the instructor. (Typically offered: Every Three Years) Psychology Courses PSYC B375 MOVIES AND MADNESS: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY THROUGH FILMS (1.0 Leslie Rescorla This writing-intensive seminar (maximum enrollment = 16 students) deals with critical analysis of how various forms of psychopathology are depicted in films. The primary focus of the seminar will be evaluating the degree of correspondence between the cinematic presentation and current research knowledge about the disorder, taking into account the historical period in which the film was made. For example, we will discuss how accurately the symptoms of the disorder are presented and how representative the protagonist is of people who typically manifest this disorder based on current research. We will also address the theory of etiology of the disorder depicted in the film, including discussion of the relevant intellectual history in the period when the film was made and the prevailing accounts of psychopathology in that period. Another focus will be how the film portrays the course of the disorder and how it depicts treatment for the disorder. This cinematic presentation will be evaluated with respect to current research on treatment for the disorder as well as the historical context of prevailing treatment for the disorder at the time the film was made. Prerequisite: PSYC B209. (Offered: Fall 2018; typically offered: Every other Fall) Russian Courses RUSS B217 THE CINEMA OF ANDREI TARKOVSKY (1.0 This course will probe the cinematic oeuvre of the great Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, who produced some of the most compelling, significant film work of the 20th century. Looking at not only Tarkovsky s films but also those films that influenced his work, we will explore the aesthetics, philosophy, and ideological pressure underlying Tarkovsky s unique brand of cinema. (Offered: Fall 2018; typically offered: RUSS B238 TOPICS: THE HISTORY OF CINEMA 1895 TO 1945 (1.0 RUSS B258 SOVIET AND EASTERN EUROPEAN CINEMA OF THE 1960S (1.0 This course examines 1960s Soviet and Eastern European New Wave cinema, which won worldwide acclaim through its treatment of war, gender, and aesthetics. Films from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia will be viewed and analyzed, accompanied by readings on film history and theory. All films shown with subtitles; no knowledge of Russian or previous study of film required. Spanish Courses SPAN B318 ADAPTACIONES LITERARIAS EN EL CINE ESPAÑOL (1.0 Rosi Song Film adaptations of literary works have been popular since the early years of cinema in Spain. This course examines the relationship between films and literature, focusing on the theory and practice of film adaptation. Attention will be paid to the political and cultural context in which these texts are being published and made into films. Students will be required to attend film screenings or view films on their own devices. Prerequisite: A 200-level course in Spanish. Counts toward Gender and Sexuality Studies Counts toward Film Studies Counts toward Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies Visual Studies Courses VIST H209 FILM ON PHOTOGRAPHY: THEORY AND PRACTICE (1.0 John Muse An introduction to media production. Students will study the relationship between film and photography by viewing, reading about, and making films that feature photographs as either evidence, icons, memento mori, or as the atom of cinematic form, that is to say, the single film frame, stilled. Occasional weekly screenings, Thurs 7pm-9pm Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Film Studies Limited Enrollment 15 (Offered: Fall 2018)